


Things Do Change

by ohmygoshcheese



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Sirius Black & James Potter Friendship, but not much because they're young then, lupin also shows up a tiny bit yay, slight lily/snape in the beginning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-07
Updated: 2017-01-07
Packaged: 2018-09-15 10:34:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,445
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9231008
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohmygoshcheese/pseuds/ohmygoshcheese
Summary: Three times she said no, and one time she said yes





	1. Part 1: Their First Meeting

**Author's Note:**

> This is for Teresa.
> 
> Also, this is a 4-parter. Each part will be of similar length (hopefully). I should have the final 2 parts up tomorrow night if all goes well.
> 
> Thanks for reading!

Lily Evans sank onto the hard wooden bench with pure relief. That had to have been one of the most stressful experiences of her eleven-year-old life. She thought the Sorting Hat would never decide her house. Although it had only been mere moments, it felt like she had sat on that little stool for hours. Her heart beating, she nearly cried when the Hat finally shouted, “Gryffindor!” 

However, through her relief, she couldn’t help but notice the look on Severus’s face. He refused to meet her eyes, and his face was even paler than usual. Worried, she scuttled to the cheering table to her left and plopped down, happy to be out of the center of attention.

The Sorting continued on, with Lily nervously waiting in her seat. A wild-haired boy with glasses and a perpetual smirk on his young face was currently sitting on the stool. The Hat shouted, “Gryffindor!” and Potter, James made his way to the Gryffindor table amidst the cheers.

Something about this boy was different from the other twitchy eleven-year-olds being sorted. He walked with an air of confidence, as if he had been told he was special all his life and believed it. His grin widened as cheerful upperclassmen shook his hand and patted his back. He responded to all of them, but froze when he spotted Lily sitting by herself. He tilted his head, then swaggered his way over to her and seated himself next to her.

Lily raised an eyebrow at him and said, “I’m saving that seat for my friend.”

James looked around, “What friend?”

“He hasn’t been sorted yet,” she gestured in the direction of Severus, who was looking back at them with a slight frown.

“Then you don’t know if he’s even in this house or not,” James said with a laugh.

Lily didn’t say anything but rolled her eyes and turned her attention back to the Sorting. She knew he was right, though. What would she do if Severus was placed into another House? She remembered him mentioning something about Slytherin before. 

Finally, the professor called, “Snape, Severus,” and Lily watched her friend walk slowly up to the stool. She held her breath, but didn’t need to wait long. The hat was only on his head for a few moments before it shouted, “Slytherin!”

Lily’s heart sank as she watched him walk slowly over to his table, shoulders slumped. He didn’t even look her way.

Next to her, James was eyeing her smugly. She turned her head to meet his hazel eyes, and he opened his mouth to speak.

“Don’t,” Lily snapped. 

James ignored her. “Told ya. He can’t be that good of a friend if he’s in Slytherin anyway.”

“He’s my only friend here,” Lily whispered angrily. How dare this boy insult Severus without even getting to know him!

“I’ll be your friend!” James said.

Lily glared at him and said, “No thanks.”

James was about to reply when suddenly the food appeared on the plates in front of them. Even Lily forgot about her grumpiness for a while as she tried to sample everything in sight.

The boy across from her reached for an apple at the same time as she. “Oh! I’m sorry!” she said when their hands bumped each other. “Go ahead, I’ll get another.” She shot him a smile.

The boy blushed and shook his head. He picked up the apple and held it out to Lily. She smiled gratefully and took it saying, “Thanks! My name is Lily. What’s yours?”

The boy shyly mumbled so quietly Lily barely heard him, “Remus.”

“Nice to meet you, Remus!” Lily said. “Are you from a wizarding family or are you like me?”

“My dad is a wizard, but mom is a Muggle,” he said, his voice a little louder now.

“Wow! How’d they meet?” Lily exclaimed, amazed that such a relationship could be possible.

“Dad got rid of a Boggart that scared mom,” Remus explained.

“A what?”

“A Boggart is a creature that takes the place of whatever the person in front of it fears the most,” a voice piped up next to Lily.

“Did I ask you, James?” Lily said frostily.

James ignored her and continued explaining about the spell needed to banish a Boggart. Lily tuned him out and turned her attention to watching Severus at the Slytherin table.

He was currently eating silently as no one seemed to be talking to him. She felt bad for him and wished she was allowed to go talk to him. 

Finally, dinner ended and the students were dismissed to their dormitories. Lily took note of the Prefect rounding up the other first year girls and dashed over to Severus. 

“Severus!” she called, and the boy immediately looked up.

“Lily? What are you doing?”

 

“I came to say goodnight to you.”

“You can’t talk to me anymore…”

“What? Why not?”

“Because I’m a Slytherin, and you’re a Gryffindor,” Severus looked at his feet as he mumbled words he wished he didn’t have to say.

“Nonsense,” Lily said. She pushed Severus’s shoulder playfully and said, “You’re still my friend, so I’m gonna talk to you. I don’t care what other people say. Goodnight, Severus. I’ll see you in class tomorrow.” She hugged him and hurried away so she wouldn’t get left behind. This castle was huge, and she had no idea how to get to the Gryffindor common room on her own.

Reuniting with the sleepy group of first years, Lily was immediately approached by James. She had to give him credit for his determination, as annoying as it was.

“Why were you talking to that Slytherin, Evans?” James demanded, now surrounded by Remus and two other boys, one nervous-looking and the other with shaggy black hair and wild eyes. Remus looked vaguely uncomfortable, but said nothing.

“I was saying goodnight to my friend,” Lily stated simply.

“He’s a Slytherin. You don’t need friends like him anymore,” James said. “Don’t worry, though, I’ll still be your friend.”

Lily glared at him yet again and snapped, “No thank you. Severus is my friend, and he always will be. Now leave me alone.” Then she walked away to join the other girls in her year.


	2. Part 2: Just a Normal Tuesday

“Hey, Evans!” 

Fifteen-year-old Lily rolled her eyes at the sound of the obnoxious voice that followed her everywhere. 

“What now, Potter,” she said, making it clear with the tone of her voice that she really wasn’t interested in the slightest.

“Watch this,” James grinned devilishly as he pointed his wand down the hallway. At the other end, his friend, Sirius, waved with a grin to match. James muttered a spell under his breath and a loud BANG issued from the tip of his wand. Lily gasped and backed up against the wall as a large stone lion came to life and bounded down the wall to stop in front of James.

On the other end of the hallway, Sirius waved his wand and a gargoyle leaped off the wall and charged straight for James’s lion. Lily screamed as the two collided, pieces of stone flying off of them. James laughed loudly as if intoxicated by the thrill of making two enormous statues battle each other.

“Potter, stop it! You’re gonna get in trouble!” Lily shouted. Already she heard angry yells all around them and knew the teachers were on their way.

“You’re no fun, Evans! You gotta live a little!” James replied, still watching the fight. However, his eyes widened and the gargoyle managed to fling the lion off of it. The enormous stone lion flew straight at Lily, who watched it fall as if in slow motion, her mind completely blank.

“Lily!” shouted James throwing his wand out to try to stop the lion from crushing her. She screamed and covered her head, but an explosion made her look back up. James was standing not far from her, looking confused. He looked to his left, and Lily followed his gaze.

Standing at the end of the hallway, arm outstretched, was Severus. His face was livid and he started making his way toward James, who turned to meet him with his own wand.

However, before Severus made it too far, several professors stormed up behind him.

“What on earth is the meaning of this?!” one of them cried upon seeing James, Sirius, and Severus with their wands out, a gargoyle nudging Sirius’s shoulder like a puppy, and Lily cowering against the wall covered in stone flakes.

No one spoke up, so the teacher said angrily, “Very well, I suppose it’ll be detention for all of you, fifty points from-”

“Wait! Evans didn’t do anything!” James spoke up before Lily could be punished.

“Neither did Severus. He saved me from these two,” Lily finally found her voice again.

The professor sighed as if she knew it all along. “Snape, take Evans to the hospital wing to make sure she isn’t injured. Black, Potter, you two are coming with me. You’re both in a lot of trouble, I hope you know.” 

Severus hurried over to Lily and helped her up, brushing some of the dust and bits of stone off her. James and Sirius obediently followed the professor, but James looked back at Lily, a frown forming on his face when Severus brushed through Lily’s hair to clear it of stone.

Later, in the hospital wing, Lily’s cuts were healing, and the nurse went off to make her a quick potion to help her sleep that night so she wouldn’t have weird dreams due to trauma. She’d tried to assure the nurse she was fine, but the nurse insisted. 

There was silence for a while before Severus slammed his hand down on the table next to Lily’s bed. She jumped in surprise and said, “Severus? What’s wrong?”

Severus took a deep breath then said, “I hate him.”

“Severus…”

“No, Lily, let me finish. He has no regard for anyone’s safety. He pretends to care about you, then puts you in danger. He thinks he’s the best, then blows up his cauldron in potions. The only thing that idiot is good for is Quidditch,” by now Severus was breathing heavily. 

“I know he isn’t the greatest guy, but I wish you’d ignore him. He’d shut up eventually,” Lily tried to pacify her friend.

“I tried that. He deliberately seeks me out. One of these days, I’ll kill him, Lily. He’ll wish he’d never bothered me.” 

“Don’t say that,” Lily said sharply. “You won’t kill anyone, Severus. You aren’t a murderer. And James certainly isn’t worth it. He’s an idiot but he’s mostly harmless.”

“‘Mostly harmless’? Lily, he could’ve killed you today!”

“I don’t think so… When he saw I was in danger, he moved to help me. I saw him about to say a spell,” Lily mused.

Severus scoffed. “Don’t tell me you like the guy now.”

“Don’t be silly,” Lily said quickly, hoping she wasn’t turning red.

“You better not. That idiot doesn’t deserve you. He won’t go far in life anyway,” Severus said smugly. “Anyway, I better go before the nurse gets back. She told me to leave a while ago, and I don’t wanna end up in detention with those morons.” With that, Severus stood up, said goodnight to Lily, and left the hospital wing.

Now alone, Lily muttered to herself, “Why would he joke about killing someone? Those new friends of his have something to do with this, I know it. He never used to say things like that.”

Lost in thought, Lily made her way back to the Gryffindor common room after taking the potion from the nurse. When she climbed through the hole in the wall, she was surprised to see James waiting.

“Potter? I thought you would be in detention,” she said carefully.

“Nah, it starts tomorrow. Lost a load of house points, though,” James rubbed the back of his head. “Anyway, are you okay? Did Snivellus hurt you or anything?”

Lily wanted to get angry and yell at James saying he and Sirius were the ones who nearly hurt her, not Severus, who saved her. But she instead thought back to Severus’s words in the hospital wing and stayed quiet. 

“Evans?”

“No, Potter, he didn’t hurt me.” Then she walked past him into her dorm and shut the door quietly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you all enjoyed part 2! Like I said before, the next two parts should be up tomorrow.
> 
> Thanks for reading and leave a comment!


	3. Part 3 - Parting Ways

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one's a bit short but it was hard to write so deal with it (please don't hate me, Teresa)

Mudblood…

The word rang in Lily’s ears as she walked down to breakfast. She’d hardly slept at all last night for crying and it showed. Too many thoughts were swirling around in her head making her sick to the stomach. She nibbled on the edge of her toast and barely listened to her friends.

She didn’t even notice James when he walked by, making a comment as usual. 

She did notice Severus silently slink into the Great Hall. He didn’t look like he’d gotten much sleep either, something that made Lily smile bitterly to herself. However, she didn’t stay long. In order to avoid any further confrontation from him, she quickly packed up her things and hurried out of the hall. 

She didn’t see Snape’s shoulders drop and his hand let go of the orange he’d grabbed. James, on the other hand, did notice. He’d also noticed how Lily had completely ignored him rather than make her usual snarky comment.

“I’ll see you guys later,” he said to his friends who watched in surprise as he ran out of the Great Hall after Lily. 

Sirius shook his head. “He’s got it bad.”

Remus smacked the side of his friend’s head. “Just because you aren’t capable of loving a girl for more than three days, doesn’t mean James is. Perhaps you could learn from him.”

Peter snorted into his orange juice, and Sirius glared at him, then turned to Remus with a mock pouty face. “You wound me,” he said with a hand over his heart.

“I’m just saying…” Remus grinned at him.

“Still, Evans didn’t seem all here this morning,” Sirius said, stuffing an entire piece of toast into his mouth.

“I wonder what happened,” Peter said, a worried frown on his face.

“I hope James doesn’t make it worse,” Remus said, only half joking.

Meanwhile, Lily had barricaded herself in an empty classroom. She was surprised she had any more tears left. All of her emotions from last night reappeared as she mourned the loss of a friend. Yes, she knew he wasn’t the best person. She’d always hoped he would change, that she would be the one to help him change.

But he didn’t. He proved her very wrong by hanging out with those Death Eater friends of his. Their influence was clearly more important to him than hers. She couldn’t believe he’d actually called her Mudblood. Honestly, the word didn’t mean a whole lot to her as she hadn’t heard it much growing up, but she knew the implications behind it, and that’s what mattered.

A knock on the door broke her out of her wallowing, and she gasped in surprise to see James Potter standing in the doorway. She immediately put on the stoniest face she could muster and wiped her tears. “Can I help you?” she said, surprising herself with how steady her voice was.

For once, James appeared at a loss of words. In fact, Lily would have thought he looked adorable standing there almost shyly, rubbing his head behind his head as he tried to find the right thing to say. Unfortunately her thoughts were elsewhere today.

“I, uh, well, um, you seemed… I dunno… a bit off today,” he finally managed to spit out.

“What gave it away,” Lily snapped, standing up.

“Mostly the fact that you ignored me, actually.”

“Wow, I didn’t know my mood depended on how much I acknowledged you. I guess you really are pretty important, aren’t you, Potter?” Lily knew she shouldn’t yell at him, but she needed to vent her rage on someone and he was closest. She’d regret it later most likely, but right now, she didn’t care.

“That’s not what I meant. I just wanted to make sure you were okay,” James said quietly.

“I’m fine, thank you for asking. Now if you’ll excuse me,” Lily smoothed out her robes and made to leave.

“Wait, Lily - er, Evans…” James grabbed her elbow. She paused, barely keeping her tears back at this point. She needed to be alone right now.

“Are you sure? I want to help you out,” James said, actually sounding earnest.

“No, James, I’m not sure. I don’t know when I’ll be sure. And thank you, but I don’t think you can help me much with this,” Lily gently pushed his arm off hers and hurried away.

James hesitated, but only for a moment. For once, he wasn’t going to listen to her when she told him to go away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Poor Lily. Having to leave longtime friends is tough. 
> 
> One more part to go! Should be up soon!  
> Thanks for reading!


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another short part. Oops. But it's very sweet. Enjoy!

Lily pulled her coat tighter around herself against the chilly December air. She vaguely wondered if Hogwarts had its Christmas decorations out again when she noticed a lovely tree in front of a department store. 

“Sorry it took me so long. Apparently everyone had the same idea as us,” James appeared at her side and handed her a steaming cup of coffee. 

She accepted it gratefully saying, “You mean there are others as dumb as us to be out in this weather?”

James laughed. “I suppose so. Only the really romantic types have dates when it’s nearly freezing.” He winked at her then used his free hand to hold hers. “Still, you gotta admit it’s nice. After all the fighting and hiding away, getting out and just walking and talking is nice.”

Lily nodded, “It is. I didn’t realize how much I’d missed this.” She gestured to the little park they were exploring. It was nearly empty with only a few stragglers still braving the cold. 

A small snowflake fluttered down and landed on James’s nose. His nose twitched, and he looked at the little droplet of water as if it had offended him. Lily giggled and leaned forward on her tiptoes to kiss the spot on his nose. James actually grew flustered, but only for a moment.

He smirked and pulled Lily closer, careful so she wouldn’t spill her coffee. “I love you,” he muttered, causing her cheeks to turn even rosier than the cold could ever make them. Then he kissed her deeply as though his life depended on it.

Lily wasn’t sure how James managed to make every kiss feel like it was their first. She felt her knees go a little wobbly, and her face heat up even more. The kiss was passionate as usual, but there was something more to it now. There was almost a sense of urgency, as though James needed to taste as much of her as possible before something could happen to either of them. She didn’t blame him. The months of fighting Voldemort and his Death Eaters made her feel the same way.

She gripped his shirt tightly and deepened the kiss, surprising James a little. His free hand went to the back of her head, gripping her hair. When they broke apart, they were both breathless and flushed. Suddenly it wasn’t so cold out.

James took a deep breath, then said, “Lily, I have something to, uh, ask you. Just, um, give me a sec.”

Lily tilted her head to the side as James fished around in his pockets for something. He placed his coffee down on the railing next to them, and Lily did the same. Finally James found what he was looking for: a small black box.

No way, thought Lily.

James took another deep breath, then knelt down on one knee. “Lily.” he said, still sounding breathless, “I know we haven’t been together long. But here’s the thing. I don’t know how much time we’ll have left together. No matter what, I know I want to spend it with you. So, Lily Evans, will you marry me?”

Lily was frozen to the spot, tears welling up in her green eyes as she met James’s nervous hazel ones. A small smile broke out on her face as the tears spilled down her cheeks. “Yes. Yes! Oh, James, yes I will marry you!” 

“Really?” James sounded surprised.

“Of course, silly! Now come here,” she give him a quick kiss on the lips before throwing her arms around him, knocking him over. Both of them tumbled into the snow, laughing. 

James sat up and grabbed Lily’s hand. He gently slid the ring onto her finger and kissed her hand. He looked at her fondly and put his forehead against against hers. “I really do love you,” he said.

Lily smiled, “I love you, too, James.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That'll do it. This was bittersweet to write as we all know what happens. But they were happy together and that's what matters in the end, I think.
> 
> Thank you very much for reading!


End file.
